Death is an ever-present and completely preoccupying aspect of life. Whether it terrifies you or excites you, it is something that is constantly under scrutiny by the metal community. I guess that’s why I search out artists who bring death to life in their work, who ask us to face it and to think about it. One of those artists, whom I am so happy to have found, is Sarina Brewer. Brewer is a taxidermic artist – she creates reverential portraits of found animal carcasses, sometimes simply using the carcass as she finds it, but more often than not altering it in some way. She creates chimeras, gilded corpses, frankensteins, talismans, siamese twins and the occasional punk squirrel. Brewer acknowledges that some people may find her perspective offensive, but contends that she is paying homage to and carrying on global traditions of revering the dead through mummification and other forms of preservation. She points out that the Victorians often used preserved body parts, such as hair or teeth, in their death jewelry, and that she too makes death jewelry with her animals. As Brewer says, reverence is relative, so why judge how a people deal with their dead? Not just an artist and jeweler, Brewer is also active in the science and animal rescue communities – she volunteers in the biology department of the Science Museum of Minnesota, and also works to rescue and rehabilitate animals. Her art uses roadkill, discarded livestock and donated corpses – the animals are in no way hunted or killed for her artistic purposes. I find her breed of art weird in a wonderful way; it makes my skin crawl with the enjoyment of her creativity. After the jump, enter Sarina Brewer’s world…
IMAGES VIA Custom Creature Taxidermy.
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